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Steffes Corp. plans Grand Forks expansion

Steffes Corp. announced Wednesday it will add another facility in Grand Forks.

The steel products manufacturer based in Dickinson, N.D., purchased the American Defense Industries building, as well as equipment and land at 6400 Gateway Drive, according to a press release. The sale closed on Friday, according to company President Joe Rothschiller.

“This asset purchase allows Steffes to increase manufacturing capacity in order to continue producing innovative and value-added products for our customers in the Midwest,” said company CEO Paul Steffes in a press release. Steffes purchased a building on U.S. Highway 2 west of Grand Forks about two years ago in an effort to find more workers away from the tight labor market in North Dakota's Oil Patch. It has 90 employees in Grand Forks today, Rothschiller said, and the new building could allow them to add 20 to 30 new employees initially.

"And then we'll continue to add to that in the next year or two," he added.Rothschiller said the plant here is about 80 percent full. "So as we look to the future in the next one to three years, the opportunity to purchase another facility in Grand Forks presented itself at the right time," Rothschiller said.

John Hageman covers local business and North Dakota politics. He attended the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, where he studied journalism and political science, and he previously worked at the Bemidji Pioneer.